Children's eyes are always changing, from moment to moment, as they take in the world around them. In a perfect world, every child would know only love and kindness and feel secure to explore and make their mark.
I woke up this morning to see a miniature donkey and tiger side by side on my dining table, a little black cat beside a big burly bear. While there are skirmishes and power struggles in the animal kingdom, and while some animals fight to the death; while certain species may have their own chest-thumping Trumps, most animals play nice with others. Children instinctively love animals and fill their rooms with toy bears and kitties and horses.
Children don't see boundaries the same ways adults do. In their world, all the animals are their friends, and all are friends to each other. Maybe their first lessons in geography come from trips to the zoo where they learn about the native lands of animals from other regions of the planet.
Animals don't watch murder and mayhem on big screens. They don't shoot "bad guys" in video games. They probably wake up like human children in all countries do, just looking out at a new day of adventure.
It's distressing to watch Syrian refugees on boats searching for a peaceful life. Children on those ragged boats have seen the fright of war. Those eyes know too much pain. Sometimes they don't make it to safety, sometimes they do.
Hearing this morning about "soft targets" in France, I can't help thinking about the softest targets in the world, the children and young people who are out on a Friday night enjoying sports events and concerts. Soft targets are the skin and lives of innocent people, like children, who don't have a fight with anyone over their gods and oil and money.
Every victim--and every perpetrator of violence--was once someone's little girl or boy. In a perfect world, all these children would grow up to know a peaceable kingdom without walls and hatred.
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